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I recently visited China, to meet my wife’s extended family.
Let me tell you, the sheer amount of single-use plastics that are consumed by any individual throughout a regular day in a metropolitan environment, is absolutely and mind-numbingly depressing.
Given that there are 1.3b people there, and that no matter how much we in the US/AU/EU reduce/reuse/recycle - we will never be able to truly offset that sheer amount of plastic pollution produced.
Now I’m not saying this to be a doomer, but more-so to say that individuals can’t enact sufficient change to save this planet, we need Government and corporate incentives to shift towards sustainable alternatives, and punitive policies to disincentivise plastic production globally.
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plastic waste per capita: the US is at top(if we exclude small island nations)
plastic waste in absolute terms: the US is not far behind China, with India at a distant third place.the reduction is plastic waste generation in China is far more than that of US1.
so, what I mean to say is that more people ≠more pollution. but I do agree that the problem is to be tackled with active participation of the government, which won't be there because of muh economy.
[1]: By 2016, China's overall plastic waste production had fallen to 21.60 million tons, a reduction of nearly 28 million tons (for comparison, U.S. production fell less than 4 tons during the same time period). Moreover, despite being one of the largest overall producers of plastic waste, China's per capita production of plastic waste was one of the lowest in the world in 2016 at 15.6 kilograms a year per person.
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Nice!!
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o instance de vc e do brasil? tem contente do portuguĂŞs?
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Ist das eine deutsche Instanz? Ist dir Deutsch gerecht?
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haha, it is indeed an instance by a German hosted in Germany, but is a general-purpose instance.
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Lots of places in the US won't recycle the supposedly "recyclable" plastics, it ends up in a landfill regardless of what you do. I remember all the educational initiatives about the importance of recycling when I was a kid. Turns out it was all just propaganda to make us feel responsible for problems caused by corporations.
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Oh man that's a drop in the bucket compared to medical/industrial/commercial plastic waste lol.
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I did the ambulance thing for a bit. CPR calls, the back of the ambulance, despite being covered in fluids, looked like a recycling center. And none of it gets recycled, obviously, all just gets red bagged or containered. Everything is individually wrapped, and for obvious reasons, but I'd have days where I could match my family's plastic use for the week or more in 12 hours.
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One day doing, even just residential construction produces more plastic waste than an entire family of 4 for a month I would reckon.
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Though in that particular scenario, while it feels wasteful, for an average person is exceedingly rare. The only paramedic supply I've had used on me in my lifetime was when my car got rear ended badly and they gave me a blanket because I just conversationally mentioned it was kind of cold while they were checking in with me. Going for a dental cleaning or a physical there'll be some single use plastics to be sure, but again, only like 3 times a year usually.
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Given that there are 1.3b people there
The majority of Chinese residents don't live in metro zones, work office jobs, and eat fast food, though.
Also, very common to find reusable metal straws (and cups and utensils) outside the US. Korea and Japan both overwhelmingly favor washable utensils, as do cities south of the US border (I stopped seeing disposables once I got outside Mexico City proper and I never saw them in Jamaica or Cozemel outside the airport/seaport). There are zero disposables in Havana. The very idea is alien to them.
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Something like 60%+ of China is urban. The majority definitely live in urban areas.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/278566/urban-and-rural-population-of-china/
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